ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Thursday evening, an Escanaba theatre group hosted the world premiere of a new stage production.
Written by Emily Turner, Stag Light was chosen as one of six winners in this year’s NewPlayFest, a national competition presented by the American Association of Community Theatre. Players de Noc had the honor of putting on the inaugural production of Stag Light at Bay College’s Besse Theater. Before the lights went down, the American Association of Community Theatre presented a $4,000 check to the Players to celebrate the play’s debut.
“They’re amazing,” Turner said of Players de Noc. “They are very talented, very professional. They’re dealing with some adversity with losing their space because of the fire, but I didn’t notice any difference in the way they rehearsed. They haven’t even been in the Bay College space for more than a few days, and they’re ready!”
Stag Light follows a family’s road trip from Maine to Michigan to spread their late father’s ashes at a lighthouse off the coast of Marquette. Although Turner is from Ohio, the play features familiar sites like Stannard Rock and the Marquette Maritime Museum.
“My husband and I took a trip to Maine, where we saw many lighthouses,” she said. “When I got back to Ohio, I started looking around for ones we could visit and found out about Stannard Rock. It’s very isolated, and it was always manned by three or more men in the Coast Guard. They called it ‘the loneliest place on earth,’ so it was kind of intriguing.”
The play is a family comedy with plenty of laughs. However, it also deals with heartfelt subjects, like dealing with the loss of a complicated figure in one’s life. Turner hopes audiences will find something they connect with in Stag Light.
“I hope that everybody can relate a little bit to the family dynamics,” she said. “I feel like we’re in a time right now in our world when it’s just so good to laugh and relate to other people. I’m excited. I hope everybody enjoys it, because it’s meant so much to me that it’s been chosen to put onstage.”
Stag Light runs through October 11, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. To purchase tickets online, visit playersdenoc.org.
